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Talk:Arquebus/@comment-176.58.21.130-20190118171833/@comment-45075715-20200220075108
>> Since you'll be chugging Elixers from Finneas the whole game, your Firearms skill will improve to a significant degree whether it's a main weapon for you or not. Oh sorry, to clarify I am speaking in the hands of the AI (mainly our troops, like Barclay Arquebusiers and CKOs armed with them)! I could see arquebus useful in the hands of a human player (I just personally don't like it since I want a mount), but I think anyone who has tried Napoleonic Wars can see how effective firearms can be in the hands of skilled human players coordinating as a team, aiming in front of them, not at the nearest target, being careful with their shots, etc. They can do really sophisticated things to get the most use out of that weapon like having the front line fire a volley straight in front and immediately start reloading, then the next set of riflemen in line get in front of the ones reloading and fire a second volley, etc, giving a steady, rapid rate of fire in spite of the huge reloading times by not having everyone fire at once as the AI tends to do. Humans use the weapon correctly to compensate for its huge reloading times -- the AI doesn't and I don't think there's any practical hope of expecting it to do so to properly utilize the weapon which is why I think the weapon might benefit from a speed rating buff to compensate for the AI's stupidity (the damage could be lowered substantially in exchange so that it doesn't make the weapon too good in human hands). If the AI could be half as smart as human players here, I could see the Arquebus being a very formidable weapon standing on par with bows and x-bows, but it's probably too much to ask to make the AI much smarter. A much simpler band-aid short of doing that to make the weapon decent in the AI's hands is just make the weapon shoot faster (maybe on par with some of the slowest x-bows) and possibly with lower damage to compensate for increased fire rate. However, if the weapon was buffed to shoot as fast as the slowest x-bows, then it might become arguably superior to the slowest x-bows. If that becomes the case, I don't see it as a huge balancing problem because the Barclay Arquebusier is a higher-tier and more expensive troop than the Balestra, e.g. It actually makes sense that the Arquebuiser's weapon is mostly like a superior version to the Heavy Crossbow to justify that as a real upgrade, and the Arquebus is not a cheap weapon or easy to acquire -- it's among the most expensive and difficult so I don't think it's OP to make it almost outright superior to some x-bows (not all), like superior to the Heavy X-bow (which still isn't nearly as good as siege or arbalest), in more direct comparisons. As a player-equippable weapon, I could see the arquebus as a reasonably balanced weapon type (as in preferable in some scenarios to x-bow or bow, but not all). I played around with Donavan's for a while on my player (and he had lots of elixirs already to have firearms prof close to 200), and as long as I was very careful with my shots, I could see its superiority in some specific contexts. I got these awesome shots on heavily-armored cavalry from mid-range charging at me and one-hit-killed them by aiming at their torso in a very satisfying way in ways where I'd probably require multiple shots with bow or x-bow unless I got a headshot. So I can absolutely see the weapon as useful in careful human hands. It could be an ideal ranged weapon for a human player that is okay abandoning a mount when using ranged, and I might prefer it to Siege X-Bow or Mettenheim Arbalest or any bow, especially if my character was lacking in both strength and power draw. The problem to me is what the AI does with it. There I can't see the balance of a kind where arquebus troops are really preferable in any circumstance, and that's based on repeated comparisons of troops wielding arquebus as opposed to various x-bows and bows. >> The Arquebus is about as effective as a crossbow in siege offense, but it really shines in siege defense. Due to defensive ammunition periodically restocking itself and the slow reload rate of the weapon, you basically don't run out of ammo, and since the enemy is in a giant clump at the base of a ladder or siege tower, you have to really be bad/unlucky to miss a shot. I'll have to try more siege defense but usually I think archers (talking about AI again) shine most there with the fastest rate of fire once ammo depletion is no longer a concern. With infinite ammo I think bow dominates almost everything. Yet x-bows come in a close second, and might even almost be a toss-up in some cases. I could see Empire Armored x-bows rivaling Ravenstern rangers for siege defense in some scenarios, and Ebony knights or Mettenheim Heavy X-Bow rivaling Silvermist rangers, and so forth. What I can't see happening are Barclay Arquebusiers rivaling any of these in siege defense (let alone siege offense or open battlfield). I'll need to conduct more tests in siege defense but what I could very easily see happening based on all the tests I've made so far is that the Arquebusiers would mostly fire at once, it'd kill some troops climbing up the ladder, and then they'll spend so long all reloading at the same time that they would be cut to pieces while reloading... unless infantry stand to protect them, but then the infantry will be cut to pieces because the Arquebusiers are taking too long to reload and failing to protect the infantry in front. The AI just tends to do a miserable job with the slowest weapons. X-Bows are a bit slower than bows, but at least not nearly as slow as Arquebus*. * Note: from my tests the speed rating doesn't seem to be consistent across weapon types. That is to say, if we had a sword with speed rating of 40, arquebus with speed rating of 40, bow and x-bow with same speed rating, they don't all seem to attack at the same rate/speed even when weapon profs match. I could be wrong and need to test more carefully with absolutely identical profs (I might need to use cheats to set up a perfectly direct comparison) but it seems like the sword will be fastest, then bow, then x-bow, then miserably slowest is Arquebus. I suspect based on what I'm seeing that the speed rating is a scalar value that's used as a divisor against the base animation time of the weapon, and the Arquebus has the longest base animation time by far. At least it seems like that, since Barclay Balestras fire with their heavy x-bow quite a bit faster than Barclay Arquebusiers in spite of the fact that the heavy x-bow has a speed rating of just 41 (only 1 extra speed rating point to Arquebus) and the Balestras have lower x-bow prof at 250 compared to the Arquebusier's 310 firearm prof.